The Situation in China: Activities of the Imperial Naval Air Force
Board of Information
Before expiration of the three-month agreement between Japan and Great Britain, dating from July 17 and providing for the suspension of traffic in war materials along the Burma-Yunnan Road, Sir Robert Craigie, the British Ambassador, called on Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka on the morning of October 8 and informed him that the British Government could not see its way clear for a renewal of the agreement. The British communication appears to have been a manifest reaction to the conclusion of the Three-Power Agreement between Japan, Germany and Italy which was reached on September 27. It also may have been closely related to the 25,000,000 dollar loan granted to the Chiang Kai-shek régime by the United States Government on the eve of the conclusion of the Japan-Germany-Italy pact. These Anglo-American measures evidently had a common motive for assisting the Chungking régime and thwarting Japan's military operations in China. Be that as it may, Japan made a tacit reply to the reopening of the Burma Road by bombing and disrupting it.
The Burma Road Under Survey
The so-called Burma Road covers a distance of 1,146 kilometres from Rangoon, capital of Burma, to Kunming (Yunnan-fu), capital of Yunnan Province in China. About 85 per cent of the entire route lies within Yunnan Province and a one-way trip over the distance takes eight days. Construction of the road was started in 1937 and was completed eighteen months later, in 1938, at a cost of 200,000,000 yuan by 200,000 labourers.
That portion of the Burma Road lying within Yunnan Province is divided into two sections for administrative purposes, one extending from Kunming to Shengpei and the western section extending from Shengpei to Yenting. These two sections are subdivided into seven smaller sections. West of Siakwan, the road is generally impassable during the rainy season because of frequent landslides. In addition, there are more than 370 bridges along the entire route, of which only 10 are of modern type. East of Siakwan there are two big bridges, both old ones, and west of Siakwan there are six modern
bridges. The most noted are those at Nuchiang (Hweitung), Yungping and Shengpei.
The Hweitung Bridge spans the rapids of the Nuchiang (Nu River), near the town of Luchiang, consisting of some 300 houses. The bridge has been rebuilt and re-enforced so that it can uphold trucks carrying up to three tons. The Yungping span is a suspension bridge over a rapid tributary of the Mekong River. Broader than the Hweitung Bridge and rebuilt on a modern foundation, it can support trucks carrying a load of five and a half tons. The Chinese Communications Ministry spent an enormous sum of money in constructing a suspension draw-bridge of the most modern type and it is guarded by scores of soldiers and anti-aircraft batteries even in peace-time. The Shengpei Bridge is not a suspension bridge and is surfaced with wood.
The Burma Road has two large bridges east of Siakwan, one in the western suburb of Hsiangyun and the other outside the eastern gate of Tsuyung. There is a relatively large bridge half-way between Hsiangyun and Tsuyung, in addition to about 90 medium-sized bridges and 288 smaller ones. All important bridges are well guarded and armed with anti-aircraft guns. There are repair facilities at important points along the road.
Until September, 1940, less than 200 trucks plied the Burma Road. Wireless service between Kunming and Rangoon was inaugurated on August 15, 1940, and the Burma Road offices in Kunming are connected with sectional offices by wireless and telephone.
There is a large repair garage in Kunming and smaller ones at Tali and Yenting.
Japanese Naval Air Arm Cuts Off Burma Route
On October 18, 1940, the very day on which Great Britain reopened the Burma Route, crack units of the Japanese naval air force swooped down on the road near the border of Yunnan Province and scored direct hits on a bridge spanning a gorge, seriously damaging it. The same day another powerful detachment of planes visited Kokiu, about 10 kilometres west of Mengtze, and effectively bombed a tin refinery there. Dense clouds hovering over the border area that day offered difficulty to the Japanese raiders, obscuring their targets, but a second bombing of the Burma Road was carried out on October 20 with satisfactory results against important bridges. Kokiu was raided again the same day, when Japanese naval planes attacked a munitions factory there. All Japanese planes returned safely to their bases on both raids. A third bombing was conducted on
October 21, destroying many important bridges one after another. On October 25, a fourth raid was carried out, Japanese naval air units scoring direct hits on the important Kungkuo Bridge across the upper reaches of the Mekong River between Shanyang and Paoshan, completely destroying it. The Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Fleet in China Waters sent a message of congratulation to the commander of the naval air force on this splendid achievement.
On October 26, large Japanese naval air formations extended their flight to Lowing, in the western extremity of Yunnan Province near the Burma border, and attacked an airplane factory there, scoring direct hits which resulted in the complete destruction of the plant. Fires were started in several places within the factory compound and all Japanese planes returned safely to their bases. The raid was significant in that it was conducted by the naval air force over a long distance and over mountainous territory and also because the factory was one of the largest of its kind in China. Its loss must have been a severe blow to the Chungking régime.
Again on October 28 a naval air detachment visited the Salween River (Nuchiang) and effectively bombed the important bridge spanning it. Other crack units of the Japanese naval air force raided Kunming, bombing military targets there, including a powder magazine on the northeastern outskirts of the town. The next day another bombing expedition was carried out against the Burma Road. The Hweitung Bridge across the Salween River was bombed and completely destroyed, thus interrupting the Burma Route not only at the Mekong River but also on the Salween River. The same day another naval air unit made a surprise attack on Chanyi, key point on the highway between Kunming and Kweiyang, capital of Kweichow Province, about 60 miles northeast of Kunming. In the ensuing air battle, the Japanese shot down one Chinese plane and destroyed another on the ground.
Messages of congratulation on its splendid achievements were sent to the naval air arm by H. I. H. Fleet-Admiral Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, Chief of the Naval General Staff, Admiral Koshiro Oikawa, the Navy Minister, Admiral Shigetaro Shimada, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Fleet in China Waters, and General Gen Sugiyama, Chief of the Army General Staff.
Thus the Burma Route, on which the Chiang Kai-shek régime as well as Great Britain and the United States pinned their last hopes, has been smashed by the Japanese naval air arm. The Chungking régime apparently is making frantic efforts to repair the destroyed bridges, but the Japanese naval air force will repeat its bombings again and again whenever the route is reopened to traffic.